Yahoo – AFP,
May 19, 2017
 |
| Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador in London on May 19, 2017 (AFP Photo/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS) |
London
(AFP) - Julian Assange claimed victory Friday after Swedish prosecutors dropped
a seven-year rape allegation against the WikiLeaks founder, but insisted the
"proper war" over his future was only just beginning.
Assange
gave a clenched fist salute as he stepped into the daylight on the balcony of
Ecuador's London embassy, where he has been holed up since 2012.
But the
45-year-old Australian said the road was "far from over" and declined
to reveal whether he would leave the embassy after five years cooped up inside.
British
police would arrest him immediately for breaching earlier bail conditions if he
left the embassy, while US authorities have warned they regard WikiLeaks as a
"hostile intelligence service".
"Today
is an important victory," Assange told reporters and a small band of
supporters crowded around the tiny balcony, after emerging wearing a black
shirt and jacket.
"But
it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge. In prison, under
house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight.
"That
is not something that I can forgive. It is not something that I can
forget."
Uncertain
future
Earlier in
Stockholm, Marianne Ny, Sweden's director of public prosecutions, said the rape
investigation had been dropped because there was "no reason to believe
that the decision to surrender him to Sweden can be executed in the foreseeable
future".
"It is
no longer proportionate to maintain the arrest of Julian Assange in his
absence," she said.
 |
Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange raises his fist prior to addressing the media on
the
balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador in London on May 19, 2017 (AFP Photo/
Justin
TALLIS)
|
Despite the
probe in Sweden being dropped, Assange would still face arrest if he set foot
outside the embassy, a flat located just behind the plush Harrods emporium.
Assange
jumped British bail by entering the embassy and claiming asylum, saying he
feared he would eventually be extradited to the United States.
US justice
authorities have never confirmed that they have Assange under investigation or
are seeking his extradition.
But US
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last month that "we will seek to put
some people in jail", when asked if arresting Assange was a
"priority" for Washington.
US
prosecutors have been drafting a memo that looks at charges against Assange and
WikiLeaks members that possibly include conspiracy, theft of government
property and violations of the Espionage Act, according to The Washington Post.
US
President Donald Trump's administration has put heat on WikiLeaks after it
embarrassed the Central Intelligence Agency in March by releasing files and
computer code from the spy agency's top-secret hacking operations.
"While
today was an important victory and an important vindication, the road is far
from over. The war, the proper war is just commencing," Assange said.
He said his
lawyers were in touch with the British authorities and hoped to begin a
dialogue about the "best way forward".
And the
former computer hacker said that despite the "extremely threatening
remarks" emanating from Washington, he was "always ready to engage
with the Department of Justice".
 |
Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Embassy
of Ecuador in
London on May 19, 2017 (AFP Photo/Adrian DENNIS)
|
The
department said Friday it had no comment "at this point" on Assange.
Asked if
London would now support a request to extradite Assange to the United States,
British Prime Minister Theresa May said: "We look at extradition requests
on a case-by-case basis."
Assange's
Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelsson, said his client plans to move to Ecuador
because "it's the only nation where he is safe".
Decision
a 'scandal'
In Sweden,
Assange's accuser was left stunned by the prosecutors' decision.
"It is
a scandal that a suspected rapist can escape justice and thereby avoid the
courts," her lawyer, Elisabeth Fritz, told AFP in an email.
"My
client is shocked and no decision to (end the case) can make her change (her mind)
that Assange exposed her to rape," she said.
The
accusation against Assange dates from August 2010 when the alleged victim, who
says she met him at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm a few days earlier,
filed a complaint.
She accused
him of having sex with her -- as she slept -- without using a condom despite
repeatedly having denied him unprotected sex.
Assange
always denied the allegations, which he feared would lead to him being
extradited to the United States and facing trial over the leak of hundreds of
thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents in 2010, which brought
WikiLeaks to prominence.
 |
WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange addresses the media holding a printed report
of the
judgement of the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his case
from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in
central London on February 5,
2016 (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'n)
|
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